Considering a 330i - Questions

[Mad Dave]

Morning,

I'm considering trading my E92 330D for an E90 330i (got two young kids so need the doors and really fancy going back to petrol and manual). What should I be looking out for? I've found a nice low mileage one on an 06 plate with iDrive, M Sport, manual etc. Also, I notice in one of the photos that MPG on the iDrive readout is showing 20.1! Is that likely to be the average or a 'just started up live time' readout? I was rather hoping for high twenties on my 15mile commute!

Any advice appreciated,

Thanks

Dave

[Mad Dave]

Thanks for the help. One further question but it's not 330i specific so I'll post it in the main forum

[Mad Dave]

Ouch that is low! My e92 330D gets around 34.5mpg on my commute, I'm hoping for mid to high twenties from the 330i which I've put a deposit on.

[Mad Dave]

Thanks for all the advice, it's an N52. This one in fact :

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Any opinions gratefully received, it appears to be the best example im likely to find.

Dave

[Mad Dave]

Thanks, appreciate the comment. As part of the deal they're doing a full tyres-off refurb of the wheels, removing the seats and cleaning/touching up the seats and doing a 3 stage machine polish on the paint so it should be beautiful. The one single thing scaring me a bit is the photo of the MPG readout which shows 20.1! I'm hoping the salesmans just been out for a thrash tho!!

[Mad Dave]

What do you reckon I'll get from it on a 12 miles commute then considering it's the earlier N52? High twenties is acceptable in my view.

The spec is very good, I put the VIN into a website and there's plenty that's not even in the ad. I'm not sure what Active Steering is going to be like tho. Funny you mention the colour combo; I think the beige interior is hideous but I'm hoping I'll get used to it!!

[Mad Dave]

THanks, that's encouraging. I only get 34 from my 330D so high twenties won't make much difference. Is yours an N52 too?

I'd love the lemon leather with black plastics and would be tempted to switch but the dash looks a right pain to swap!

[Mad Dave]

Thanks for all the help and advice, I really appreciate it. I've put a deposit down on it and will hopefully collect it at the weekend. I can't quite believe I've found a 1 owner low mileage car with such a huge spec and full dealer history, plus a manual box! Having the right colour seats would just be too good to be true!

[Mad Dave]

Thanks. Hopefully it's as good as it looks

[Mad Dave]

Thanks, it's about 90 miles away anyway but I'll be seeking out the twisties rather than the motorway

[Mad Dave]

Thanks for all the replies. My commute is only about 12 miles, half A roads then the rest along rural back roads so we'll see what I achieve!

To the chap who's only 14 miles from the dealer; any experience of them?

[Mad Dave]

That's a very good point actually. Is it 2 year oil change intervals on these? Looking at the MOT history online, it did 21k before it's first MOT then around 4K a year thereafter. What should it have had as a minimum in that time?

[Mad Dave]

Thanks for all the advice. I've queried it with the dealer and the car has had:

Pre-delivery Inspection - 29/03/06 - N/A
Oil/Filter/Brake Fluid - 14/05/08 - 12,422
Oil service - 23/09/09 - 25,660
Vehicle Check - 21/4/11 - 34,048
Micro Filter, Brake Fluid - 5/5/11 - 34,139
Micro Filter, Brake Fluid - 16/5/13 - 39,572
Oil, Micro Filter, Brake Fluid - 28/4/15 - 48,394
Vehicle Check, Front Brakes - 10/9/15 - 51,055

All BMW main dealer

Now, that means according to the book it didn't have any fresh oil between 23/9/09 at 25k and 28/4/15 at 48k miles. So it's missed two oil services potentially. Seems incredibly odd as it went into the dealer 3 times in that time so i'd be shocked if it wasn't done at the same time.

Additionally, I was able to find out the previous R/K's details and put them into street view and, not to put too fine a point on it, the bloke's clearly not short of a bob or two (image below). You can actually see the 330i sat outside. A bit more googling reveals the RK to be a millionaire property developer (possibly, tho the hi viz in the back of the car backs it up) so I can't imagine he's scrimped on the oil changes considering the car was in anyway. I did speak to BMW and they could only tell me that their records show the same thing; no fresh oil for 6 years.

Are these engines fragile if not given fresh oil for that period or mileage?

[Mad Dave]

I did ask how they came to have it and asked if it was from auction and they say they got it from the main dealer it was traded in at. It could easily have been traded at a Cardiff dealer. Would they sell a 10 year old car on their AUC scheme? I didn't think they would. My gut feeling is that it's had the oil changes done by the dealer and it's not been recorded for some reason - I can't think of a reason why he'd send it to the dealer three times in that period yet not get a basic service item attended to when he's getting brake fluid changed etc.

[Mad Dave]

Well I went to see the car today. Had a good look round it and immediately noticed a few scuffs on the paint. It's 10 years old so no real surprise. Inside though there were quite a lot of scuffs and marks, the drivers door handle was very worn (all the soft tough material was worn off) and the gear knob was way more worn than I'd expect on a 56k mile car. The alu trims were all full of dents and scrapes where stuff had clearly just been thrown in the car. The sat nav DVD was also missing. Most worrying though was the grinding noise coming from the engine bay. It sounded like a bearing or pulley, like a 'krr Krr Krr' noise. It went away when revved but at idle it was noticeable. It was still there after a lengthy test drive too, though strangely when I started the car again 10 minutes later it was gone! Either way it was worrying.

As for the driving experience, it handled beautifully, sounded glorious and went pretty well. It didn't feel much quicker than my 330D but then I didn't really expect it to.

In the end there were just too many negatives, it's a 10yo car but it just didn't feel like the cherished example I was hoping for and once I lost my confidence in that I started to believe it could have actually gone 6 years without an oil change. As disappointing as it was I ended up driving the 2hr drive home in the same car I left home in.

Thanks for all the advice, I'm still considering a 330i, just not that one!

[Mad Dave]

I did consider the 335i but was put off by reports of HPFP failures and high running costs. The 330i seemed like the sweet spot of the range.

[Mad Dave]

It doesn't need to be a saloon, it just needs 4 doors (2 young kids) so an estate would also suffice. A 130i is also a consideration but finding a good one of those hasn't been easy either.

I've driven an E46 320D M Sport and I agree re it being a decent drivers car. If a decent one presented itself I'd consider it.

[Mad Dave]

CB 987 said:

I saw this one on the E90 forum, worth keeping an eye on the UK classifieds section. It's low miles at just over 20k, but auto and in my opinion strong money.

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130...

That's very nice. It's Auto sadly, otherwise I'd be interested. It's a little over priced IMHO but maybe the seller is simply leaving some haggle room